New York has Broadway, Las Vegas boasts hip pool parties and a dynamic night life, L.A. has Hollywood, and San Diego has SeaWorld, the zoo and ... Hillcrest.

Already a top destination for leisure travelers, San Diego, it turns out, also holds wide appeal for the gay visitor and not just because it has a trendy urban neighborhood teeming with gay-friendly bars, restaurants and boutiques. Trouble is, its big-city rivals have been far more aggressive in trumpeting their virtues to the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) traveler.

When thousands of out-of-towners pack up and leave San Diego this weekend after crowding into local restaurants and bars and filling up hotels for the annual Pride festivities, they will have pumped millions of dollars into the local economy. But what about the other 51 weeks of the year when San Diego’s profile as a gay-friendly destination gradually vanishes from the tourism radar?

There’s big money to be made from gay travel, say tourism and marketing research experts, and a California coastal city like San Diego, with wide appeal to gays and straights alike, would be wise to capitalize on what has become a lucrative market niche. A conservative estimate is that the gay community accounts for about 7.5 percent of travel-related spending. Applied to San Diego’s total visitor revenues last year of $7.2 billion, that’s a windfall of roughly $540 million.

“You have things that appeal to any traveler, like the great beaches, shopping, the arts, cultural things to do, but you also have a huge gay community in Hillcrest, so you have the best of both worlds,” said John Tanzella, president of the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association. “But if San Diego is not doing something to make sure that the gay traveler knows about them, they’re losing business to other places.”

Top gay travel markets

According to the San Francisco-based LGBT market research firm, Community Marketing Inc., San Diego is ranked seventh in the U.S. for combined gay leisure and business travel and 11th among the LGBT community for leisure travel. Leading the top 10 are New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles. That’s based on a survey last fall of 6,700 gay and lesbian U.S. residents and 540 Canadians.

Frustrated with the paucity of promotion touting the region as a gay-friendly destination, San Diego’s gay and lesbian chamber of commerce sought to fill the void by creating its own travel website about a year ago, offering tips on dining, lodging, shopping, night life and entertainment. It’s also developed a smartphone app tailored to the gay traveler and secured a $39,000 grant from the city to beef up marketing.

Greater San Diego gay travel app

The Greater San Diego Business Association has created a gay travel app.

“The potential is huge. San Diego could be in the Top 5,” said Tom Luhnow, CEO of the gay chamber, known as the Greater San Diego Business Association. “When we first went to ConVis and looked for gay-related information, it was almost nonexistent. We have so much more than beaches to draw people here, but you have to reach out to the gay community and let them know you’re welcoming to LGBT.”